Page 107 of You Saw the Best In Me

“Listen, you sick motherfucker. If you lay a single hand on her, I will fucking kill you. I will hunt you down, find you, and kill you. Do you understand me?” I say, staying as calm as I possibly can.

“Catch me if you can,” he laughs, and the phone disconnects.

I hold my head in my hands, resisting the urge to throw up. That asshole thinks he’s won and acts like kidnapping Karina is a game.

Harper shouldn’t be seeing this, and I beg her to go to bed.

“Mav, I’m not going anywhere. You and Karina need me. She’s okay, I can feel it,” she says, pulling me in for a hug.

“How do you know, Harp?” I ask, the tears falling again.

“Karina said that when people die, you feel them all around you or notice them in different things like butterflies or dragonflies. I don’t feel her here, and I don’t see her in anything. So she’s okay,” she says, sounding like an innocent kid, and I have to take her word for it.

“Thank you, Harper,” I kiss her cheek but usher her into Karina’s bed.

I don’t sleep. I stay up all night, pacing around while everyone else spent the night in Karina’s apartment. I’m ready for a game plan when Hunter and Willow come in with coffees for everyone, and a little while later, Reilly joins us.

“I’m taking Harper to school,” Juliette says, looking for someone to give her their keys.

I toss her mine and hug Harper goodbye.

“One of us in this room will pick you up today. I will text you who and in what car by lunchtime. I love you, Harp,” I say, not wanting to let go.

“Okay. If Karina comes home, will you text me that, too? I don’t care if I get in trouble,” she asks, and I promise her I will.

Fuck.

Harper shouldn’t have to deal with this, and I swear, if I get my hands on Asher, I’ll kill him for what he did to all of us.

“Hi, I’m Reilly. I brought footage from the salon,” she says, stepping forward and plugging her phone into my TV.

We watch Reilly leave, and Karina comes out, her phone in hand. That’s when we hung up, and she got in the car like nothing was wrong.

“He had to have been inside the car. Reilly, did you get any earlier stuff?” I ask, and she shakes her head.

“I didn’t, but I will. The cameras save twenty-four hours of footage,” she says, and we all practically rush her out the door.

The more footage we have, the better we can understand what happened.

This is pointless to show where she is now, though. It’s morning, and still no sign of her car.

I won’t give up. This is the most painful thing I’ve gone through since my mother’s death. I want to reach out and touch Karina’s thigh or squeeze her hand a few times, but I can’t.

She’s not here.

He can’t have her. Nothing on this planet is going to stop me from getting her home safely.

I will burn down every forest, lift every car, and swim every ocean to find her.

Asher may think he’s with Karrie, the young girl desperate for love and anything to numb the pain.

But I know the woman she grew into.

Karina Grace Collins is strong as fuck, and she will find a way to tell me where she is.

That is one thing I do not doubt.

KARINA